THE Blayney Bears scored an emotional win over the Cowra Magpies in Sunday’s opening round of the Group 10 premier league season, a victory preceded by a poignant guard of honour for missing half Terry Brown.

Prior to kick-off at King George Oval both clubs’ premier league sides were joined by their lower graders, members of the Orange City Lions - where the talented pivot won a colts premiership in 2014 - spectators and Brown’s family in a moment of silence.

Brown’s family, including older brother Bobby who is expected to line up for Blayney soon, were also on hand to display his now retired No.6 jersey.

“There’s a lot of us who have played with Terry for the last three years, and he’s like a brother to some of us,” Blayney captain-coach Dane Howarth said.

“Losing him was very emotional but the boys played with their heart on their sleeve, it was great.”

Ryan Oborn and Josh Rainbow both notched doubles for the Bears while Howarth and boom 2016 recruit Carter Hirini also crossed in the 28-20 victory.

The two sides traded tries in the opening half, with Caley Mok and Mitch Browne crossing for Cowra, while Rainbow’s first-half brace kept the home side in touch - only one of those four tries was converted for Cowra to lead 10-8.

Howarth found the line on the half-time hooter, with Lachlan Hobby’s conversion extending the lead to 14-10.

The Bears skipped further ahead, to the tune of 24-10, thanks to Oborn’s double before Mok and Ron Lawrence found the stripe for Cowra to cut the deficit to four with just five minutes remaining.

Blayney held firm though, sealing the victory through former Orange Emu Hirini, who showed off his trademark speed with a 70-metre runaway try on debut.

“[It was a] great way to kick off the season against a quality side,” Howarth said.

“I was pretty happy with our attack at the end of the first half. We stayed to our game plan and our structure was good. Our discipline was a big let-down so it was a good thing we worked on our defence in the off season.”

Cowra captain-coach Rory Brien was succinct following the loss.

“They didn’t beat us, we beat ourselves,” he said.

“There was a lot of simple errors, it was terrible at times, and every time we got some good ball we panicked. I’d love to have a stat on what we completed because it would have been terrible.

“[Blayney] were OK, I didn’t think they were anything special, but they deserved to win today.”

BLAYNEY BEARS 28 (Ryan Oborn 2, Josh Rainbow 2, Dane Howarth, Carter Hirini tries; Lachlan Hobby 2 goals) def COWRA MAGPIES 20 (Caley Mok 2, Mitch Browne, Ron Lawrence tries; Mok 2 goals).